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Local and Regional Effects of Land-Use Intensity on Aboveground Biomass and Tree Diversity in Tropical Montane Cloud Forests

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Abstract

The quantity and spatial patterns of aboveground biomass (AGB) are expected to correlate with ecosystem structure and biodiversity across biomes. However, the local and regional variations in the strength of such relationships remain poorly understood partly due to the influence of ecosystem disturbances, such as land-use change. Here, we quantified AGB in tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) in southern Mexico and analyzed its distribution patterns at local and regional scales. Specifically, we investigated how land use and environmental factors (that is, topography and climate) influence AGB spatial patterns and the relationship between forest structure, AGB, and tree species diversity across forests with different levels of disturbance, using 160 plots from the Mexican National Forest Inventory (FI) database. Our results show that AGB (averaging 137 Mg ha−1) is strongly influenced by variations in forest structure such as stand basal area and the density of large trees, with a weak but positive relation with tree species diversity. AGB increased with elevation and slope and decreased with very high levels of precipitation and land-use intensity, suggesting that spatial variation in AGB across the region can be best predicted by the interactive effects of land use and environmental factors, with land use having a larger role. Our results challenge general assumptions about the structural and compositional properties of montane forest ecosystems and emphasize the need to explicitly include interactions between environmental and human drivers when analyzing changes in AGB and devising sustainable management plans.

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Data availability

Data and code are available on Github and archived on Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7272469

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Mexican National System of Forest Monitoring (Sistema Nacional de Monitoreo Forestal) at CONAFOR for their assistance with the Forest Inventory database. This project was developed as part of AU’s doctoral dissertation with support from CONACyT scholarship Becas de posgrado en el extranjero (709969) and the University of Oregon.

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  1. Adriana Uscanga

    Present address: Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, Michigan State University, 673 Auditorium Rd, East Lansing, Michigan, 48824, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, 1251 University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 97403-1251, USA

    Adriana Uscanga & Patrick J. Bartlein

  2. Environmental Studies Program, Department of Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, 5223 University of Oregon, 144 Columbia Hall, Eugene, Oregon, 97403, USA

    Lucas C. R. Silva

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  1. Adriana Uscanga
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  3. Lucas C. R. Silva
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Correspondence to Adriana Uscanga.

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Author Contribution: AU and LS designed the study, AU performed research, AU and PJB analyzed data, AU wrote the paper, and all authors edited the manuscript.

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Uscanga, A., Bartlein, P.J. & Silva, L.C.R. Local and Regional Effects of Land-Use Intensity on Aboveground Biomass and Tree Diversity in Tropical Montane Cloud Forests. Ecosystems 26, 1734–1752 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-023-00861-1

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